Bras provide support and enhance the shape of breasts. There has been a long sought need for an adequate supportive bra for women with a natural droop in their breasts. Conventional bras do not meet the needs of women whose breasts have acquired a natural droop in their breast due to size, breastfeeding, breakdown of breast tissue or any number of other causes.
Conventional bras are designed to try to defy gravity and uplift a wearer's breasts to create pert, non-sagging breasts. However, it is impossible to create completely upward sloping breasts out of breast tissue that has a natural droop. A woman with naturally dropping breasts must put her breasts into conventional bras that are unlikely to fit as well as they would on a wearer with non-sagging breasts. If it was physically possible to fit naturally drooping breasts into a conventional bra, and have the bra fit and work as it was designed to, women with naturally drooping breasts would have breasts poking straight out in the air, a significant distance out in front of them.
As a result of the natural droop in most women's breasts, conventional bras sit at the lowest sagging point of the breast tissue and try to pull the breast up from that lowest point. Not only does this result in a bra that doesn't fit properly, but it also results in several major design problems. An example of a conventional bra is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B and is indicated generally by reference number 100. A conventional bra has a band 103, a pair of cups intended for receiving a wearer's breasts 105, and shoulder straps 109.
Firstly, all the weight of the breast B hangs completely on the shoulder strap 109; the resulting pressure on the shoulders of the wearer over time often results in large grooves in the shoulder tissue of the wearer as well as shoulder pain, aching and discomfort, as shown in FIG. 1A. This is an ever greater problem for wearers of conventional bras with larger breasts.
Secondly, the lower section of the bra rubs on the ribcage or torso T of the wearer as the natural droop breast moves during daily life activities to a much greater degree when compared with a firmer non drooping breast. This is again, an even greater problem for wearers with large natural droop breasts where women are known to be rubbed raw from the repeated daily rubbing movement of a conventional bra. This greater range of movement of the naturally drooping breast also means that the lace and overlay fabrics placed on conventional bras around the lower cup and arm sections of the bra results in an even greater chafing effect.
Thirdly, with the complete breast tissue of a naturally drooping breast not being fully enclosed in the cups 105 of a conventional bra, the underside of the breast B that touches the ribcage is not supported at all, as shown in FIG. 1B. This exacerbates the drooping of the breast as there is even more chance of a breakdown of the breast tissue resulting in further sagging.
Furthermore, in conventional bras, breasts that have a natural droop are prone to the significant issue of the wearer's breast tissue “climbing out” of the bra when any physical or bending down activity occurs. It can even result in the breast tissue completely coming out over top of the bra. Even with the wearer wearing a correctly sized bra, this happens because a breast with natural droop has a much greater range of movement during normal everyday activities than a firmer breast with no droop. The “four breast” look that results from breasts “climbing out” can at its worst result in serious health issues caused by damage to the breast tissue, and at its best be uncomfortable and look unsightly and unattractive.
Conventional bras often have a device at the lower edge of the cups to provide support. These devices are commonly known as underwires 107 and are inserted into and held within a fabric sleeve disposed about the periphery of the lower section of the bra cup. They are made from materials, such as bone, metal or plastic and are provided in various forms, shapes and cross-sections. Most commonly, the underwire is formed of relatively thin metallic pieces of rectangular cross section, shaped into essentially semi-circular or U-shaped for that allows the underwire to be fitted within a sleeve disposed about the periphery of the lower half of the bra cup.
These underwire structures have achieved widespread usage; however, a number of significant disadvantages can result from their usage in conventional bras when the breast has a natural droop. In particular due to the natural droop of the breast and the inability of conventional bras to encompass the whole breast, the rigid nature of underwires irritate and further amplify the rubbing and chafing effect of the conventional bra on the ribcage of the wearer.
The daily movement range of a breast with natural droop and the fact that the underwire is required to undertake the strain of the whole weight of the natural droop breast in an effort to pull the breast tissue up towards the shoulder, can result in the underwires snapping. This snapping of the underwires has been known to cause small stab wounds in the breast tissue or rib cage when the broken underwire pokes through the sleeve casing. The weight of the breast tissue with a natural droop breast sitting on conventional bras can also result in a distorting of the underwire outwards resulting in the underwire poking into skin of the wearer under the arms leading to discomfort and sometimes bruising. FIG. 1B shows the position of an underwire 107 of a conventional bra relative to the wearer's breast B, which contributes to the discomfort experienced by the wearer.
The placement of the straps 109 on a conventional bra also often results in the shoulder straps falling off the wearer's shoulders. This is due to the wide strap placement of straps on a conventional bra. Also a factor is the greater range of movement of the naturally drooping breast can put uneven pressure on the bra strap and when combined with the already wide placement of the straps of a conventional bra the strap moves and slides off.
With conventional bras that are made for larger cup sizes, the grading or sizing of the bras is-often just a smaller bra with every pattern piece made larger. When undertaking this grading or sizing of conventional bras, no changes are made to the base cup shape and strap placement and the resulting large cup sized conventional bras end up with very wide shoulder strap placement. No allowance is made for the fact that even though the wearer of the bra has larger breasts, they do not in fact have wider shoulders. This further exacerbates the underlying problem of shoulder straps falling off while wearing conventional bras for wearers with naturally drooping breasts. For women with naturally drooping breasts who also have a large cup size and a large rib size this is an even greater problem.
An adequate supportive and comfortable bra for any woman with a natural droop in her breasts is not available in the market.
An object of at least preferred embodiments of the invention is to provide a garment that addresses at least one of the issues discussed above and/or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.